Sterling in for a lively week!

A quiet week for data last week and a quiet week for sterling, appreciating slightly against the euro while remaining largely unchanged against the US dollar.

This week is all change as we have a raft of data released here and from elsewhere in the world which may well mean that we will see a lot of movement in exchange rates, not least for sterling. Looking ahead, the major data releases in the UK this week will be the purchasing managers’ indices (PMIs). As ever, the figure from the services industry on Wednesday is likely to provide the most market impact, while releases from the manufacturing and construction industries earlier in the week will provide insight into the economic health of their respective sectors. Slight falls are expected from the previous month figures but all three indices are still expected to show expansion in their respective sectors. We also have the release of the latest interest rate decision from the Bank of England (BoE), which is likely to remain at 0.5%. More influential will be the release of minutes later in the month showing how each policy member voted as last month the markets were surprised to find that 2 of the nine members of the committee voted for an increase in interest rates.